while the rhythm of the rain keeps time
by great gospel
Summary: For, seventeen months should mean nothing in the wake of one who has seen the ages rise and fall and comes bearing death's cloak.


**Word Count**: 752

**Characters/Pairings**: Rukia, Ichigo, mentions of others; IchiRuki

**Timeline/Spoilers**: post-chp 423; mild spoilers for 423 and Fullbring Arc

**Summary**: For, seventeen months should mean nothing in the wake of one who has seen the ages rise and fall and comes bearing death's cloak.

**Notes**: Getting back on that Bleach fic grind after so many years! Here's some Rukia and hella late chp 423 angst! Obviously, these are made up figures, because why not?

Warning: run on sentences galore.

Title and lyrics come from _Jet Pack Blues_ by Fall Out Boy!

* * *

_She's in a long black coat tonight_

_Waiting for me in the downpour outside_

_She's singing "baby come home" in a melody of tears_

_While the rhythm of the rain keeps time_

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The number seventeen has become a significant fixture in Rukia's life.

* * *

_She is seventeen days old when she perishes in the world of the living_

_._

Japan is in the wake of national turmoil and governmental upheaval when she is born. The age of the sword is dying, but she is born just in the midst of its retirement, so it is only fitting that in the next life, she returns to the way of the samurai. Not that she remembers any of it. Her father, a peaceful man, joined the ishin shishi army, if only to make ends meet. Their family lived modestly to begin with, but constant battles raging in the countryside made food scarce, and their crops failed that year.

Rukia came into the world too early (she was so small, a malnourished babe), and left it all too soon (an unexpected house raid sent them all to an early grave).

Her mother is killed in the fields. Her father, she knows not what happens to him. She perishes in Hisana's arms, and her sister refuses to let her go, even for the soul burial, so two Shinigami have to come and perform their konso simultaneously. They are sent to Soul Society together, if it is of any consolation.

* * *

_But it is after seventeen grueling weeks in Rukongai that Hisana abandons her_

_._

The two sisters die in poverty and are reborn in it. The sentiment reeks of irony.

Even so, she cannot find it in herself to place blame upon the sister she never knew. In all honesty, she still finds it hard to believe that either of them made it out of Inuzuri alive. Her mind occasionally wanders back to the childhood companions who weren't so fortunate. She can barely recall their faces anymore, but she can hear the echoes of their laughter in her dreams. Their hearts remain with her (and Renji), just as Kaien-dono taught her.

* * *

_Seventeen months are what now span the gap between her and Ichigo_

_._

Seventeen million, billion heartaches and heartbreaks.

It all went by so fast. The time spent apart now far outweighs the time spent together. She's existed in this form for over a century, dwarfing his mere decade and a half, but those few, fleeting months spent fighting side by side seem to span lifetimes.

Besides, this normal, human life is all she ever wanted for him, right?

* * *

_And he is suddenly seventeen years of age and wholly changed by their last encounter (or should she say departure?), yet somehow, unrelentingly the same_

_._

Her hair is shorter now. Paired with a long-deserved lieutenant's badge on her arm, she dons fingerless gloves and a silk, white scarf that are probably far too reminiscent of her brother for his tastes. But she had needed the change, as the world around her shifted, completely inconsiderate of her stagnant heart. And she wonders if perhaps it's too much different, if _she's _too different.

But there he goes growing taller again (but this time it sticks), and he's got jobs under his belt and university looming ahead, and for some inexplicable reason, there are tears in his eyes and lines that mar his skin. And she worries that perhaps _he's_ too different, that he's moved on, that it's been too long, that his world is turning much too fast for her to keep pace… For, seventeen months should mean nothing in the wake of one who has seen the ages rise and fall and comes bearing death's cloak. Ah, but it means everything to an adolescent boy.

But then there's that scowl of his and the sword in his hands that just seems so right and that familiar glint in his eyes and that look reserved just for her that speaks volumes and transcends life and death and smolders and rekindles that same fire inside herself. And she realizes that even though she may have to crane her head even further to lock eyes with this new Ichigo, who has lines across his shihakusho and carries even more baggage than she remembers (and are those sideburns she sees?), he really hasn't changed in the slightest, not where it matters.

* * *

_And it takes not even seventeen milliseconds (seventeens beats of the heart, a seventeen second glance) for her to fall back in love with him_

_._

(She never really stopped.)

* * *

She is now free of her personal curse of seventeen, but she thinks she wouldn't mind spending the next seventeen lifetimes like this.

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_owaranai_

**A/N**: Please don't favourite without reviewing! Let me know what you thought. :)

Shihakuso – the Shinigami uniform

I set Rukia's human lifetime during the Bakumatsu period, since she said she was around ten times Ichigo's age, and that's roughly 150 years ago. (Plus I thought it would be cool haha.)


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